Cooking with grandma is the new luxury food kick

AFP, CANNES, FRANCE

Mon, Dec 12, 2011 - Page 6

Forget five-star restaurants. Food-loving tourists are getting their kicks in other ways, from cooking up a hotpot with a Mauritian grandmother to market shopping with a Venetian countess.

More than just fine dining, well-heeled travelers in search of gourmet luxury are seeking out “experiences,” sparking a shift in the tourist industry, according to experts at an upmarket travel fair in Cannes last week.

“Gourmet travel as a niche market is huge everywhere,” Jennifer Campbell, a member of the bespoke travel specialist Virtuoso network, said at the annual International Luxury Travel Market.

“The trend is growing strongly,” said Campbell, whose firm will shortly fly a small group of epicureans on a truffle-hunting expedition to Italy.

“Travelers now want to go out and about to see for themselves, for example, how truffles grow, where to find them and how to cook them,” she said.

The movement began three to five years ago, boosted in the US, Britain and elsewhere by rising interest in organic produce and local food, as well as global television hits such as Masterchef.

One example is “Grandma’s Kitchen” at the Shanti Maurice Nira beachside resort in Mauritius, an alternative to the resort’s high-end restaurants and run by the real grandmother of one of the staff.

Grandma rustles up traditional Creole fare that might include honey lamb or fish curry at her home while sharing stories with her guests, before sending them off with a selection of handwritten recipes.

The simple experience has proved a hit with the resort’s well-heeled guests, along with a fish and rum shack set up on the beach.

“It’s all about taking people out of a cosseted, gated community and giving them an experience that they can’t get by themselves,” the owner and chief executive of Nira Hotels and Resorts M.P.S. Puri said.

Hoteliers and restaurant owners are not the only ones to benefit from this new-found appetite for authentic dining.

From Italian aristocrats to ordinary housewives in China, individuals are opening up their homes to amateur cooks keen to master local dishes, from the most simple to the seriously exotic.

“These travelers want to learn about new ingredients and new mixtures,” said Paul Bruning, head of sales and marketing at the Southern Africa branch of luxury travel provider Abercrombie and Kent.

The new Philippe Starck--designed boutique Hotel Palazzina Grassi, in the heart of historic Venice, Italy, is tapping into the culinary-driven market.

Guests can accompany one of the city’s best-known aristocrats, Countess Enrica Rocca, to the city’s famous Rialto market to learn how to select fresh, locally caught fish.

The countess leads them and their shopping baskets back home to prepare Venetian specialties, while regaling them with stories about her family history.

Guests are coming from around Europe as well as Australia to enjoy a day out with the countess, at a cost of about 1,000 euros (US$1,300), a hotel spokeswoman said.